Philip Thicknesse

(1719 - 1792)

Philip Thicknesse was best known in his day for the two-volume A Year’s Journey Through France and Part of Spain. His writings were once described by a critic as “dull, ponderous, stupid, egotistical diatribes… unredeemed by a single generous thought or a well-expressed sentence.” After falling out with long-time friend Thomas Gainsborough, in 1788 Thicknesse published A Sketch of the Life and Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, much of which describes their trivial quarrel over an unfinished portrait.